


A Lesson in Sacrifice

by LadyAbernathyWordsmith



Series: The Uchiha Chronicles [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Next Generation, One Big Happy Family, Post-Canon, Puzzles, Uchiha family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 20:51:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6299962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAbernathyWordsmith/pseuds/LadyAbernathyWordsmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Satoru has homework; find a dozen or so family pictures that are important to him, and bring them to school for Family Day, and Shikari Nara invited herself to help him shift through the thousands of pictures he has to choose from. However, things get a little muddled when Shikari finds out there was an Uchiha that she never knew about.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enter, the Three Siblings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AGES:  
> Sarada: 31  
> Shino: 5 (Dead)  
> Shizu: 19  
> Shina: 19  
> Suizen: 17  
> Suzu: 16  
> Seiji: 15  
> Sayaka: 15  
> Shou: 14  
> Suoh: 14  
> Sora: 14  
> Saizo: 14  
> Satoru: 5  
> Sanyu: 3

_19 years after Uchiha Sasuke returns._

"What kind of pictures are you gonna bring?" Satoru heard his fellow classmates ask as they made their way out the door of the academy.

"I dunno, I don't think my parents took many pictures of us. Maybe my grandma has some I can take." The Uchiha began to slow down as the group of friends passed by.

"Lucky! My parents went totally camera crazy! I've got tons to sort through." Satoru stopped, taking a seat on the bench, waiting for his friend. After a good twenty minutes of sitting and reading on his phone, he heard a familiar call.

"Thanks for waiting, Satoru-kun!" The Uchiha looked up from his phone, hearing his name called by Shikari Nara.

He stood as she jogged up to join him. "Hey, it's no problem." He said, a small smile on his face as they started down the streets of Konoha.

"What took so long anyway?" He asked as they began their route to Shikari's house.

"My class was having a big fight over what event we were gonna host for Family Day." Said Shikari with a scoff and roll of her eyes. "Nobody could decide between a Parent-Child Dance or a Three Legged Race. What's your class doing?"

"A slide show. We're supposed to bring in pictures of our families."

"Aw man! That's so easy, I wish we could've done that!" Sighed the girl, her lips set in a thin line.

"It'd be easy for you, you're an only child!" Satoru said, side-bumping his friend. "I have buttloads of brothers and sisters and thousands of pictures I gotta look through!"

"Well, let me help you then." Offered Shikari with a smile, side-bumping Satoru back.

"Doesn't that conflict with your 4 PM nap?" Asked Satoru with a raise of his eyebrow and a small smile.

"For you, my dear friend, I will sacrifice! C'mon, lets go. Your mom makes great snacks anyway." Shikari grinned, changing their direction from her house to Satoru's.

Only a couple were home when they got there. Papa was out training with the four quadruplets (Shou, Suoh, Saizo and Sora), Suzu was out with her not-boyfriend Hiro Hyuuga, Seiji was out working his part-time job at the bookstore, Suizen was outside the village (still), Shina was still at work at the Police Station and Shizu was working his shift at the hospital. Only Mama, Sayaka and Sanyu were home at the moment.

The two found the massive pile of photo albums in the storage room in the basement, and Shikari was floored by how much there were.

"You really weren't kidding, were you?" She asked, seeing the massive bookshelf of photo albums, and a couple baskets on the lower shelves that were also filled with unsorted pictures.

"Papa says that it's important to documents us, cuz we're Uchiha." Satoru made a face, sticking out his tongue as he did so.

"Guess that makes sense. You guys are kinda rare." Admitted the Nara. "How much should we take?"

"Just a few should work. My baby book and a couple of these baskets." He said, tip-toeing to get to the book with his name written on the spine as Shikari went to pick up a basket of pictures from the shelves.

They only made one trip from the basement to the living room, Satoru having left to go get juice and snacks for them. Mama said she would bring them their snacks after she found Satoru trying to take the entire cookie jar back to the living room.

She came into the living room carrying a tray of ice tea with a bowl of cookies as Sanyu (with all the grace of a 2-year old) waddled in with her little red wagon behind her, bearing a plate of sliced cucumber and tomatoes.

"Nyu-chan, can I hug?" Shikari held her arms open, the little Pink haired Uchiha letting go of her wagon to hop into the arms of the Nara girl, only managing to babble 'Blibri' for her name.

"What are you two doing going through these?" Asked Sakura, setting down the iced tea and cookies onto the short table.

"School project, I'm supposed to bring in a couple pictures of the family and Shikari-chan offered to help." Said Satoru, swiping a cookie from the plate and taking a bite.

Sakura glanced to Shikari, a knowing look in her dark green eyes.

Shikari pretended not to notice as she set Sanyu up to walk again, a relatively new feat for the toddler.

"Well, I may as well lend a hand too." She said with a smile. "I've been meaning to go through these anyway. Where to start...?" Soon, the living room was covered in open photo albums and piles of sorted pictures.

Sakura was flipping through a basket of unsorted photos as her son, Satoru flipped through the pages of an album next to Shikari, Sanyu having since gotten tired and lay napping on the floor with one of the seat cushions.

"Hey, wait." Shikari stopped Satoru before he could flip again, she pointed to a picture of the family, though there were considerably less people in it. There stood Sasuke and Sakura, both carrying two little kids (still swaddled in blankets) with their oldest sister Sarada carrying an older one on her shoulders. Kneeling on the ground infront of them were three kids, around her and Satoru's age, and the middle one was holding a toddler. She pointed to the person holding the toddler, a white-haired, red-eyed guy with short hair. "Whose that guy?"

"That...? His name is Shiro," Answered Satoru, taking the picture out of the album. (Sakura stiffened a bit at the mention of that name.) "He's my brother, the third triplet between him, Shizu-nii and Shina-nee."

Shikari raised an eyebrow curiously. "I don't think I've met him...where is he?"

Satoru set the picture down onto a pile. "He died before I was born. I never met him."

"Oh..." Shikari said softly, picking the picture back up, looking at it. "He looks kinda...strange."

"Shiro was an albino, and the weakest of the three." Said Sakura, gently lifting the picture from Shikari's hands, turning it over to look at her son. "He was very sickly for most of his life, so he didn't leave the house very often."

Shikari glanced to Satoru, who was, very determinedly, not listening to his mother's story. "I see..." Said the Nara girl quietly. "I would've liked to meet him."

"I think you'd like him," Sakura said with a smile and a little laugh. "He loved doing the same sorts of puzzles you do."

"The little wood ones?"

"Yes, and this metal box one he got from Suna. None of us have been able to get into it, think you would like to try?" Sakura offered with a smile.

"Yes, please! If...ah, you don't mind." The pinkette gave that soft, motherly smile before standing and leaving the room.

During the interment minutes, Shikari gave a good smack to the back of Satoru's head. "You jerk, don't you have any heart? Any sense of sensitivity?!"

"Ow! What was that for?" He hissed, not wanting to wake his sister.

"Why didn't you tell me about Shiro?! I wouldn't have asked if I knew what happened!"

"I didn't think it was important! Do you want a list of my dead relatives? Because there's a lot!"

"Just..." Shikari bit her lower lip. "I just thought...you'd tell me."

"He's dead, what's the point?" He asked, going back to the sorting. "I never met him, I never knew him. Trying to be sad for Shiro is like trying to cry someone else's tears."

Shikari sighed a little, eyes downcast just as Sakura returned with the box. She set it down on the table, and Shikari had a look. It seemed like any ordinary jewelry box, standing up with doors that opened to show little drawers on the inside, and a larger drawer on the bottom, pretty but simple. The outside was made of black wood, with golden gears painted onto it. She tried to open one of the drawers, but found that it was stuck.

"That's the puzzle part, look in the back." Said Sakura. "I've tried opening it, but I don't have an eye for mechanics."

Shikari turned it around, feeling that the panel there was looser. She pulled at it, and found that it slid up much easier. On the inside was a system of gears and levers, some of which slid from slot to slot, and a golden wind up key in the middle. She saw no obvious solution to this.

She began to fiddle with it, and when a couple gears and levers were slotted into place and would move easily, she turned the key.

The box made an awful sound, metal grinding against metal and angry-disjointed sounding words, like someone was speaking backwards. The sound had woken Sanyu, and Sakura went to tend to her.

"I-I'm so sorry!" Shikari gaped, trying to close the box and finding that, when the lid was on, it stopped the horrible sound.

"It's okay, dear. It was about time for naptime to end anyway." Assured Sakura, lifting the little Uchiha. "I should get started on dinner anyway. Will you be joining us, Shikari-chan?"

"I...I'd love to, but I have to decline. My Dad expects me home soon." She said, setting the box back onto the table.

"You should take it," Said Sakura just as Shikari was about to pull back from the box. "We haven't been able to crack it, so maybe you can. Consider it a challenge."

Shikari's fingers slid against the smooth, slightly dusty wood, before taking the box again and holding it to her. "If you're sure...I will, thank you, Uchiha-sama." She stood, holding the box to her chest.

Satoru offered to walk home with her, but she declined. She would spend the walk home thinking about possible solutions to the box.

Half way down the street from the Uchiha residence, however, she saw a pair walking back. Her back straightened when she realized who it was, Shizu and Shina Uchiha. Her arms tightened a bit around the box protectively as they approached.

"Shikari-chan, hey!" Said Shizu, walking up to her with a wide smile on his face.

"Nara-san." Shina said, a small smile on her own face as she walked beside her brother.

Both those smiles twitched a bit when he saw the box in her possession. "I...uh, what're you doing with that?" He asked, going back to that smile, though it was just a bit more plastic.

"I...Uchiha-sama let me have it, she said maybe I could solve it." She said, swallowing a bit.

Shina knelt a bit, her purple-painted fingers running across the top of that box. "Take care of this box, alright? Do your best to solve it."

Shizu's smile looked genuine again, if a bit saddened. "Yeah, you've got all the brains of your father and mother, and then some. If anyone can solve it, it's gotta be you." He said with a little, weak sounding chuckle, patting the top of her head. "Come tell us if you find anything interesting in there, alright?"

Shikari nodded. "I will, don't worry." She promised, stepping back a bit as the two, towering 18 year olds stood to their full heights.

"Good luck, Shikari-san." Bade Shina, patting her head as she passed.

"Night! Be careful walking home, kid!" Called Shizu after he was a ways away. Shikari looked down at the box in her hands. "I hope I can solve you..."


	2. Shiro's Box

Days had passed by without any progress on the box puzzle.

Shikari had resorted to asking the internet about it's make and model, but found that these types of boxes had been originally used to protect special documents while they were in transport from country to country, and that the boxes were 'reprogrammable', you could change the puzzle solution after you finished unlocking it.

Satoru still hadn't been able to pick up on why she'd gotten mad at him (which just, quite honestly, got her all the more mad at him), but they managed to reconcile over the box and trying to figure out it's solution. Whether Satoru loved or could love Shiro wasn't his motivation, he was curious and wanted to see what secrets that damn box was holding.

Shikari had noticed strange little grooves in certain gears, and swapped a few of those around while Satoru took notes. She saw that they were little lines near the middle of each gear, carved in and near impossible to see if you weren't looking extremely close, and it was possible to feel them if you paid attention and were very gentle.

Each gear of importance was numbered, and each lever could slot into three different positions to let the gears move along them. With that figured out, they could keep track of which gears went where and in what position. 

She asked her Dad and grandfather, but her Dad didn't have a taste for puzzles and couldn't logic a solution from thin air, while her grandfather was fascinated by the box, but his eyes were too weak and his fingers too creaky to move the pieces or see the gears properly, so he was of little use.

After a while, they found that there were tiny little grooves carved into the gears, a unique shape in each one, so they could keep track of which gears slotted into each spot. After three days of trying different combinations, they found one that worked. (They celebrated with uncontrollable screaming, which sent half the Nara household into Shikari's room.)

The top drawer had popped open, and inside was a piece of folded up paper. Shikari pulled it out, opening it and furrowing her brow at the contents. 

"Well, what is it?" Asked Satoru, peeking over her shoulder.

"A drawing." She sighed, handing it over to Satoru. "And a really bad one too."

He held it open, and felt a crushing disappointment hit him. A drawing, made in colored pencils, depicting a stick figure version of the Uchiha Family from Shiro's time (with two babies in blanket bundles and tiny stick figures of Suzu and Suizen next to Mama and Papa standing below a bonfire. Above the bonfire, Shina and Shizu stood, with Shiro standing just bellow the fire, between Mama and Papa.

"Think it means anything?" Asked Shikari, going to clean up the mess of papers they'd used to write and cross out combinations. 

"He was sick," Said Satoru, folding the picture back up and pocketing it. "He probably drew it during his last days, when he was delirious and scared." 

"Think they'll be disappointed?" Asked Shikari, picking up the box to put it away. "Shizu-kun and Shina-san, I mean."

"Dunno." He sighed with a shrug. "Maybe they'll be mad at Shiro."

"You're gonna show it to them?"

"Yeah, they really wanted updates." He said. "I should probably go now anyway, it's late. Keep trying tomorrow?" He asked.

She held out her fist. "Course! You know it."

"Get some sleep, Shikari-chan." He smiled, fist-bumping her before he went to gather his things and leave.

When she saw him walking down the street from her window, she went and sorted through the papers and notes he'd taken, putting the box back onto her desk and opening it so the gears were pointed to her. "Okay, Shiro-san. Let's get this done." She said determinedly, getting back to work.

* * *

"Where's Shina-nee and Shizu-nii?" Satoru shouted into the house as soon as he got home.

"Nice to see you too!" He heard Seiji shout back in reply. "You're home late!"

Satoru got to the the dining room where Seiji was setting the table for dinner. "Shizu-nii or Shina-nee." He said, not so much asking as demanding.

"My day was great, thanks for asking little brother!" The black-haired Uchiha grinned as he set the place mats down.

Papa, wearing Sarada's old pink apron with a cooking kitty printed on it and his hair pulled back from his forehead with a clip, poked his head in from the kitchen door. "Shizu's on his way home from some errands and Shina's in her room."

Satoru quick-walked by, heading straight for Shina's room. "Thanks Papa! I like your apron!"

Papa shouted back as he passed. "Mine's in the wash!"

"See? I told you it wasn't that bad." Said Seiji with a laugh.

"Hn." Sasuke went back into the kitchen with a slightly sour, pouty look on his face.

Satoru hopped up the stairs two at a time, ignoring his quadruplet brothers asking him where the fire was as he passed by the living room on his way to the sleeping quarters of the house, where everyone's bedrooms were. He knocked, hearing Shina call 'come in!' before he stepped in.

"We got one of the drawers to open." He said before he saw what she was doing.

She was sitting at her short table, flipping through one of the photo albums that Satoru had brought out the other day. (He still hadn't culled the 50-some odd pictures he'd found down to a manageable number...)

 "Oh, did you?" She asked as she closed the album, setting it aside as Satoru came into the room, sitting across from her.

"Yeah, but...It wasn't any important or anything. No lost treasure maps or amazing jutsu scrolls or anything." He said, putting the paper onto the table.

"Shiro wasn't a ninja, Satoru-chan." Shina chuckled slightly, taking the paper and turning it to her, opening it up. She saw the picture, picking the paper up to inspect it. Her pointer finger and thumb rubbed the page between the pads of her fingers. She smiled faintly. 

"I'm disappointed in you, Satoru." She said, smile in tact as she set the paper back down.

Huh? "How's it my fault he didn't put anything in the box?!" He asked, incredulous. 

"Not about that, about the fact you didn't see the secret." She pushed the page back towards her little brother. "Shiro-kun was rather obvious with the hint he gave."

Satoru took the page back, inspecting the drawing again. He had no clue what Shina could've deduced in all of five seconds after seeing the stupid thing...With his eye so close to the page, however, he did smell something strange...It was a familiar but indistinct smell. He set the page on the table, and ran two fingers across the picture, his fingers came away a bit shinier than before. "It's covered in oil..." But...that didn't make sense! He would've felt it in his pocket if it was coated or something. No, it seemed more like there was oil in the paper itself. This page was a little thick to be paper from a stationary store, now that he thought about it.

"It's a special type of paper, homemade." Said Shina with a little chuckle, turning the page back to face her. "Shiro, Shizu and I made a couple pages from a recipe book when we were young. It's made with chakra, oil and some other stuff, and it's inflammable so the paper itself can't burn."

"What's the point of-" Satoru stopped short, putting the pieces together. "Burn the paper." He concluded suddenly.

"And the drawing is burned away-" Shina continued

"And shows the message underneath! That's brilliant!"

Shina spoke up, stopping Satoru short of performing the Fire Breath. "But, there is a catch." 

"What catch?" He asked, stopping the flame short. 

Shina held up the paper, showing the drawing again. "It was my and Shizu-kun's chakra that made the paper," She pointed to their stick figures on the page, standing above the bonfire  together with it's drawn flames pointing upwards. "So it'll only show the message for a fire made with his or my chakra. If you or anyone else tries to burn it, it'll just burn up like a normal piece of paper."

Satoru understood now, the point of the bonfire drawing. Bellow the fire was the entire family, people who couldn't burn the page and see the message, and above the fire were the only two who could. "That...seems kinda like a reach. Isn't that a bit hard to figure out with just a picture for a clue?" He asked.

"Well, he was only five when he came up with the riddle." She said, setting the paper down, about to burn the page and finally show what it had to offer.

Before one of the quadruplets knocked on the door. "Shina! Dinners ready, come eat!"

Shina stopped mid-justu. "Yum, c'mon little brother. I'm hungry."

Satoru gaped. "But, the page! You were just about to burn it!"

"It'll still be there when dinners over."

"But you waited so long! It's Shiro's last message!"

"I've waited eleven years to see what was in the box, I'm sure I can wait another hour." She reasoned, opening the door. "Now, are you going to come or not?"

He stared at her, incredulously. He waited for the joke, 'Haha, as if I'm going to wait! Bring it here, I'll burn it on the floor.' But it never came. 

"Well, just don't mess with anything when I'm gone, okay?" She said, going out the door and to the dining room.

Satoru grabbed the picture, pocketing it before going after his sister. He'd show Shizu, he'd burn it right at the dinner table!

Unfortunately for Satoru's insatiable curiosity, Shizu was still out when he got to the dining room. Most of the house was already there while Papa portioned out the meal, handing the plates to be passed down the long table. Satoru sat, antsy as a bowl of udon and a plate of rice and chicken curry was put in front of him, he kept glancing at the door, waiting for Shizu to appear. 

Satoru was stirring the noodles in his bowl, only taking small bites. He didn't want to explain the paper or how it was supposed to be burnt, so he forced himself to silence until his biggest brother was home.

Finally, he heard the front door open. "Something smells good in here!"

"Shizu-nii!" Satoru shot up, rushing to the front door. 

The pink haired teenager had his arm loaded down with bags, though that didn't deter Satoru from jumping for him.

Shizu was forced to drop the bags (filled with lengths of cloth and sewing things for Sora, Shao, Suoh and Saizo to use for their latest project, whatever that was) in order to catch Satoru, lest the kid end up pulling Shizu down to the floor. "H-hey! Nice to see you too, kid!" He gasped, lifting the kid. "What's with the sudden welcome?"

"Shikari-chan and I opened the box part way, we found this paper and drawing and Shina told me what it was and you need to burn it!" He said quickly, showing him the paper.

Shizu blinked slightly, surprised by the onslaught of sudden information. He held the paper, looking at it before he smiled slightly. He set Satoru down. "Eat first, pyromania after." He said with a smile, pocketing the paper and picking up the bags of sewing supplies. He set the bags down by the stairs. 

"Hey Weirdo's, I got your stuff." He said, walking into the room with a noticeably sour-looking Satoru trailing behind.

The four identicals looked to each other, grinning before they scarfed down what was left of their dinner in record time. By the time both Shizu and Satoru were back at the table, the brothers had dashed off with a quick 'Thanks for dinner!' as they grabbed the bags and ran to their shared room.

"I made enough for seconds..." Sasuke said quietly as the boys raced off. He and Satoru ended up having the same pout on their faces. "They're always begging for curry and udon, but the one time I make it they decide to run off early...It takes so long to make and there's so much chopping and-"

Sakura couldn't help but smile, kissing her husband's cheek to wipe that, admittedly adorable, look off his face. "You know those four. They'll be back down here looking for a seconds in twenty minutes." She promised with a laugh.

 "So, what're you mad about?" Asked Seiji, shouldering Satoru. "Is the second-child syndrome finally setting in? Does my little brother wanna be babied again? I knew you weren't immune!"

Sayaka smacked their brother. "Dumbass! Don't be mean to Satoru-chan!" 

"Thank you." He said with a chime, like a routine as he found it in himself to smile at his elder brother's pain.

"You both are jerks." Seiji huffed, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes as he held the back of now severely sore head.

 _'I wonder if there's some genetic mutation I could have that mean's I'm not related to those people...Or I could be adopted, that'd be good too.'_  Thought Suzu, watching from across the table at her three darker haired brothers and sister, next to her mother and father as she consoled him about his cooking and ungrateful sons, as she quietly continued her meal.

Satoru ended up waiting for his oldest brother and sister to finish, and it seemed like they were the slowest eaters in the world as they stopped between bites to shoot the breeze and talk about their days as Mama cleared away the dishes and Papa went to check on Sanyu.

Satoru was steaming by the time they finally finished. "Okay, paper time now!" He declared, about to go into the yard.

"Ough..." Shizu grunted, yawning and stretching his arms above his head. "Maybe after a nap, kid."

Satoru froze, slowly turning to stare at his brother with pure murder in his eyes. "The...the paper..."

"Who cares?" Yawned Shina. "I mean, it's not like  _you_ knew Shiro or anything." Satoru felt like a bucket of ice water had been poured down his back.

"And besides, he's dead anyway." Shrugged Shizu. "What's the point over worrying about the dead?"

Satoru looked down, heart clenching tightly in his chest. "You...heard that? What I said?"

Brother and Sister looked to each other, then to Satoru. "Mom told us." They said in unison.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" He began, only to be cut off by Shina.

"You may have never met him, but he was still your brother, Satoru." The boy flinched at the sharp tone in his sister's voice.

"He's done more for this family than you realize." Shizu said, sounding a lot softer and forgiving than Shina. "You shouldn't speak ill of the dead, Satoru. We lost a lot when Shiro died."

The boy stood at the sliding door that would lead to the yard, eyes downcast. "It...hurt..." He whispered quietly. "Knowing I had another...another big brother that I couldn't meet..." His fingers fiddled with the hem of his shirt. "I didn't mean for what I said to sound like that...It's just...It's easier to not think about it, about him." His vision blurred, and he wiped his face on his sleeve. "That stupid box...I thought that...if it had something inside, something no one else had ever seen...I thought..." His throat tightened slightly as tears rolled down his face, coming faster than he could wipe them away. _'It would be like talking to him.'_

He felt himself picked up, and he held onto the figure, not knowing if it was Shina or Shizu or if his mother had come in from the kitchen.

"C'mon, kid." He heard a low voice rumble. "Let's go burn that paper."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reviews and comments are greatly appreciated! <3


	3. Shiro's Message

Satoru was sat on Shina's lap on the porch, watching the paper burn, the flickering flames reflected in his dark eyes as Shizu finally set the paper aflame with a small, controlled burn. The smoke wafting from the page was black as the colored pencil was burned away, leaving behind a slightly smokey but intact piece of paper left. 

Shizu reached for the paper, handing it to the youngest son without so much as looking at it. "What's the verdict?" He asked as he went to sit next to the two. 

Satoru looked over the page, brushing his fingers over the writing there. It wasn't the last message of a dying kid, it was a poem. 

 _I feel the end drawing near-_  
_Would time be so kind to slow?_  
_You're everything to me, my dear,_  
_You're all I really know._

_But as I sit and wait and fear,  
And watch the hours go-_

_Everything that happened here,  
Happened long ago._

Shina read it over Satoru's shoulder, and kissed hair softly. "I'm sorry, Satoru. I guess this isn't what you were hoping for."

"He never was quite right in the head." Sighed Shizu softly, stepping onto the porch. "Spending all that time to just hide a poem, that was definitely something he'd do."

Satoru, however, wasn't so sure. He read over the poem, a sense of familiarity striking him. This wasn't original, it had been copied, but from where Satoru wasn't exactly sure. He knew he'd read it at least once before. 

"Come on, you should be in bed." Said Shina, Shizu reading her thoughts and lifting his younger brother from her hold. 

He held onto the paper, the gears clicking in his mind as he was carried off by his brother.

The guy had spend so much time and energy hiding it, writing it on paper only his closest siblings could decode, putting that paper into a box only someone both brilliant and patient could open, only to hide an unoriginal poem? He thought about the lines, attempting to decode meaning, but finding only the surface qualities. 

He was dying, he knew it, he was scared and wanted time to slow. But...'you're everything to me, my dear'? And that last pair, 'everything that happened here, happened long ago'...

Satoru was put to bed, it was late for a 5 year old and he was tired, but the mystery kept him wide-eyed. Shina had left, leaving Shizu to finish bed-time duty alone. He was laid to rest, the poem taken from his hands and put onto his desk. The older, pink-haired boy left with a soft 'goodnight', and left Satoru alone with his thoughts.

He was five when he died, so that 'my dear' couldn't be a romantic relationship. Who could be dear to Shiro? He was sickly, and never left the house, so it would probably be family. Shizu or Shina, most likely. Probably both. Family probably was all Shiro ever knew...

He fell asleep, dreaming about solutions to a puzzle he wasn't even sure was a puzzle.

* * *

Shikari hadn't managed a second drawer in the incurring three days since they'd found the page. Satoru had told her about the poem, showing it to her, and she knew where she'd seen it. 

It was from a book of poetry, a compilation from a single author called 'Lullabies'. Satoru found a copy at the public library, but found no clues. Lullabies was a romantic story, detailing the start, middle and end of a relationship as melodramatically as possible. When he brought the book home to finish, hopefully gleaning an unseen clue in the other poems, he found out that his mother actually used to have a copy herself. 

"I used to read that thing forwards and backwards," She said with a laugh, flipping through the copy Satoru had. "I used to read these for bedtime stories, but I lost my copy before Suzu was born and couldn't find another after it."

That got alarm bells ringing inside Satoru's head. That seemed like an odd coincidence, for Shiro to have grown up listening to these, and for Mama to lose her copy just after Shiro had passed. But...that still didn't answer the main question. What happened long ago, and how had Shiro repeated it?

"How did Shiro die?" He asked his mother, slouched over the living room coffee table as she flipped through the pages of his book. 

His mother replied easily, quickly. "He got very sick, sweetie." She answered calmly. "Sickness runs in your father's family. Your uncle got sick too."

He turned to her, dark eyes watching her. That seemed like a practiced answer to a routine question. Had others before him questioned about his death, or had Mama been anticipating this question? He didn't push, switching the subject.

Later, when he asked his other brothers and sisters if they'd asked about Shiro, most answered with a resounding no. Suzu was the only one who'd looked into it with any sort of depth, but only to see what type of disease he'd had. 

He concluded that Shiro hadn't died of his sickness, and that Mama was lying to him. Could he prove it though? Unless he could somehow sneak into the Hokage offices and take a peek at the death certificate, he doubted he could.

"Everything that happened here, happened long ago." He kept muttering that line under his breath for hours, not quite noticing that he'd been saying it loud enough for others to hear him. He had to compile a list of significant events in Shiro's life and compare them to the past, he concluded, and find the common thread between them.

Easier said than done. 

He brought up the poem and his theory to Shizu, when he was playing a card game with Suzu in the living room. "Well, that was a long time ago, Satoru." Said the elder. "Kids don't often remember that far back."

Satoru had copied the poem to a second piece of paper, and made annotations across it. Mentioning the familial tie, the fear of death and passing time, and adding question marks to the last line. "But there has to be something!" He bemoaned, flopping onto his back. "It just doesn't make any sense otherwise!"

Suzu watched her brother whine and writhe on the floor, pitch black eyes going to look at the poem. "He was five, right?" She asked, going through it line by line, reading the added notes as she went, one eye still on the cards between her and her older brother.

"Yes." Both males answered, Shizu picking up another card as Satoru sat up like an eager puppy, waiting to hear her insights. 

"At five years old, what could a significant event be?" 

Satoru had been wracking his brains for that one. He had no idea. 

She saw the confusion on his face, and made a small amendment, "How about a sickly five year old who also happens to be an Uchiha?" She asked, handing the page back to him.

Uchi...?! "The Sharingan!" He gasped, dark green eyes gone wide as he had his eureka moment. "He got his sharingan!"

He didn't notice how Shizu stared after him as he dashed off. He had to speak to Papa about this!

"Go fish." Suzu said, pulling Shizu back from his revere as she set the last of her two cards down.

Shizu stared down at the table, alarmed that he'd lost track of the entire game when Satoru had come. "No fair! I demand a rematch!"

"Too bad, brother. I win." Suzu stuck out her tongue.

* * *

He found Papa in the garden with Sanyu, the toddler helping their father pick tomatoes from the vines. "Papa, I have a question!" He said, sounding alarmed.

Sasuke looked up from the garden, mismatched eyes questioning as his son skidded to a stop at the porch. "Come help us, and I might answer your question." He offered mildly, smirking with amusement when he saw the slightly cheesed off expression on Satoru's face.

Satoru hopped down, joining his father and sister in harvesting. "Did Shiro have his sharingan when he died?" He asked, going up to the wall of plants, reaching for a couple of the juicy ones. Sanyu held out the empty basket when he went to put them down.

"Shiro?" Asked Sasuke, raising an eyebrow. "You've been obsessed with him recently, is there a reason why?"

"His puzzles are making me frustrated." Satoru huffed slightly, helping his sister pick a couple of the red fruit from the lower vines. "He made them when he was five, right? Nobody's been figuring anything out since then and it bugs me. If someone was actually trying, they would've gotten it by now."

"Have you considered maybe it's a bit painful to try?" Asked Sasuke curiously. "Imagine trying to go through my or your mother's things after we die."

Satoru stilled for a second, his hand going back to the basket. He hadn't thought of that, honestly. "It...it would be hard, I think..." He said softly, plucking another tomato from the plants. "I don't think I could do that..."

"Exactly," Sasuke was firm. "Maybe you ought to put a little more concern into your questions. Shiro is something of a sore subject for everyone." 

Satoru glanced up at his father through the corner of his eye. Did that 'sore subject' thing apply to him as well? It was difficult to believe, but...

The boy helped his father with the chore without so much of another word about his white haired brother.

With no answer to his question, he saw it fit to visit the graves not long after. Dead men couldn't talk, but maybe something would jump out at him if he was near the remains. Perhaps a ghost would pop out and tell him where to go.

The Uchiha Graves were just behind the old shrine, the hollowed out remnants of the Nakano Shrine, where rows upon rows of stone greeted Satoru as he came down the steps. He passed by his grandmother, grandfather and uncle, and stopped at Shiro's. This was where Mama and Papa would be put one day, and any other unmarried children that died before or after them. But right now, there was only his brothers name on the gravestone, a faded picture of Shiro and wilted flowers in the vase.

He sat before the grave, putting up his usual offering of a chocolate egg onto the grave, the same thing he gave whenever coming to help clean the graves or pay tribute to the past members of the Uchiha Clan, and put the burned message onto the alter. Hands clasped together, he sighed deeply. "From one five year old to another, you've stumped me." He said softly, looking into eyes of the picture. They were naturally pinkish red, and didn't seem to be looking in any particular direction. In fact, he seemed rather scary at first glance, a smile on his face but eyes almost completely void of any emotion or feeling. His eyes seemed to glow and flicker from the camera's flash, behind his unreasonably thick glasses shone a sort of cold intelligence that struck Satoru like lightening. If Shiro hadn't been sick...

Satoru was certain he would've been a legend. 

Instead, here he lay, dead at five with nothing other than a box and a house of brothers and sisters to his memory. "Am I missing something, Shiro?" He asked softly. "I have all the pieces but...It doesn't fit. The poem, the paper, the box...Only Shizu-nii and Shina-nee could see under the paper, only a genius could open the box...Who were you hoping to find all this? What were you hiding, or...did you do all this to distract yourself?"

No ghost came, and Shiro's grave remained silent. 

This felt stupid, Satoru thought as he stood, sighing and dusting off his pants. "You win, Shiro. If the paper has a solution, I can't find it."

He was about to leave, but stopped at the graves of his grandparents and uncle. He didn't have anything in particular to say to them, but just put a couple eggs onto their alter. The picture showed Uncle Itachi wearing a black robe with red clouds on it, the picture that had once been on his Missing Nin posters, since he had no prior pictures after the downfall. Papa had made no secret that he'd burned all pictures of Uncle Itachi when he was young and full of hate, a decision he fully regretted now. Next to uncle were Grandma and Grandpa, whose pictures were much more faded than any of the others. 

Satoru found himself thinking back to the stories he'd been told of these three. Granpa's short sighted nature, Granny Mikoto's strength and devotion...Most of all, however, Papa loved talking about Uncle. Others outside the family had begun to joke that generosity was becoming a tenant of the Uchiha Clan, replacing ambition and ruthless power grabbing, all because the entire family was quick to hand over what was in their pockets, but Satoru blamed that entirely on Papa. Growing up, knowing about what Itachi did, becoming a missing nin and destroying what he loved most in the world, all to save Papa...Listening to stories of that kind of life-long sacrifice just made it all the easier to give an extra few Ryo when somebody was short for candy at the sweets store, even if it meant you couldn't have strawberry milk with your own lunch.

But, that missing nin picture didn't convey that innate kindness.

He looked cold, empty even. Those eyes were red with his pinwheel sharingan, his expression a stone mask.

The young Uchiha felt a shred of familiarity, glancing sidelong at Shiro's grave not an entire three feet away. His eyebrows furrowed. How had Uncle gotten his sharingan? During a mission, he remembered, but most Uchiha did. That wasn't a connection. But his Mangekyo...

His father hadn't told him about it directly, but he did overhear the story when Papa was telling Suzu and Seiji a few months ago, as a warning to not pursue the Mangekyo recklessly. Uncle had been fighting against the Uchiha, to try and find a peaceful solution and avoid war. His friend Shisui had been fighting alongside him, and somehow lost one of his eyes. Hellbent on stopping a world war, Shisui had given Uncle Itachi his remaining eye and fell into the Naka River, entrusting his uncle to protect the village.

It felt like a stone had lodged itself in Satoru's throat when the pieces began to fit together.

The Naka River, where Shisui died... Was that the place in the poem? 'Every thing that happened here'...

"Satoru-chan!!" The boy's head shot up, hearing his name called by his brother, one of the quadruplets. "Man, we've been looking everywhere for you!" Sighed the pink haired identical, hopping down the steps to where Satoru was. "What are you doing here anyway? Nothing's due to be cleaned until  _next month_ , Little Brother."

"Nothing, Sora-Nee. Just thinking." Satoru stood, stretching out his legs. "What's going on anyways? You were looking for me?"

"Yeah," Said Sora, patting his brother on the head and leading him back up the stairs. "We're going clothes shopping and Mama said you need new shoes."

Ugh! He hated clothes shopping!! He dug his feet into the ground and whined that he didn't want to go, he was busy damnit!! He had a mystery to finish!!

Sora ended up hauling his limp body from the graves back home, delivering a pouty Satoru to their mother. The Naka River connection was forcibly put on the back burner as Satoru was dragged to the shopping district with a major chunk of his family and forced to try on a bunch of new sandals. 


	4. Shiro's Sacrifice

After shopping was finished, take-out food was bought and eaten. All through the afternoon, thoughts of the Naka River plauged him, wondering.

But, it was too dark to go out alone, said his father when he asked to go. Whatever he had to do would wait until tomorrow, after school.

Satoru didn't wait. He left the house as soon as he was sure everyone was asleep. He jumped out his window, and slid down the wall with the help of a wire. He'd get back well before dawn, he told himself. He needed to see. 

"Must be your son." Sakura whispered to Sasuke from the bed, her husband standing at the window with Sanyu in his arms. "He doesn't take to rules very well."

Sasuke watched him go, disappearing into the shadows and hidden from the moonlight. "Yeah..." he sighed, a tired smile crossing his lips. "Him and Shiro."

* * *

There was an outcrop at the river, a cliff that stood above the fork near Naka Falls. At the edge of the cliff was small, flat onyx stone with engravings, much like the Stone of Heroes near the training grounds. It was Shisui's 'grave', since there had never been a body to burn and bury.

He looked up at the waterfall at the fork and found that the falls had turned to liquid silver by the moon, and breathed deeply before declaring to the moon, shining brightly in the sky. "Okay, Shiro. I'm here, what's the secret?"

Like at the graves, no one answered. Satoru's sights shifted down, back at the plaque at his feet. "What about you, uncle? Has Shiro told you anything in heaven?"

Shisui's lined, stern face looked up at him from the portrait on the stone. 

"Didn't think so." He sighed as he stood. Why did he expect dead men to talk? He scuffed his foot over the hard ground, hoping maybe some buried secret would show itself. Ultimately, to no avail. 

He sat heavily in front of the onyx slab, retracing the letters on the stone with his finger to clear away the gathered guck that came with being so close to water. He should insist on coming to clean this too, when it came time to clean the graves again. With it being so out of the way, Shisui was often forgotten.

Satoru again looked up at the falls, sighing deeply. His eyes hurt, he should've just come back tomorrow like he'd been told. He wouldn't be so tired, he'd be thinking better...Just as he was about to go, mid standing, however, something caught his eye. A sparkle...no, some kind of reflection. He stood, and it disappeared. Satoru had to crouch at just the right height to see it. There, across the river...

He looked around, trying to find a way across...The nearest bridge was at least an hour's walk, and went right by the front of his house. He'd be in big trouble if he was caught...

Going down to the banks of the river, he knew he couldn't get there by walking across. He wasn't good enough at chakra control to walk across the rippling surface, stone and trees were easier for him. It was too rough, too uneven and changing too often. Going back up...He had an idea, he'd run and stick himself to the wall behind the falls. He had to time it perfectly though...Too early, he's stick to the waterfalls for half a second before falling and drowning, too late and he'd hit the stone behind the falls, smash his head before falling and drowning...

He went at the edge at a run, regrettably having to step on Shisui's stone as he jumped. Like a dart he flew, going directly at the waterfall. He held his hands out, and felt the ice-cold rush of water. His hands met the solid stone behind the falls, and he clamped on, his hands staying solidly to them with his chakra after half a second's panic, his feet coming to grips with it not long after. Head bowed, water flowing around him and over him with just a tiny, slippery gap of air between the water and stone, he breathed ragged, shallow breaths. That was too close...

He slid across the stone, going to the right where he saw the flash. Jumping from the cliff wall and landing on solid ground, he forced himself to ignore the tingling in his legs. His fear would have to wait, there was a clue!

It took a little while to find it, the shiny thing. He found it stuck in a tree, caught snug between forking branches. It was a small box, it's sides made of glass and held together by ornate metal, while it's top part, the part that lifted, was a mirror. The mirror side had been what had shone, and could've only been seen at that specific height. 

Satoru sat in the forked tree, and opened the box. 

Inside was a letter, and a few pictures.

The first of the pictures was of Shiro, with Shizu and Shina at the Konoha Hospital garden, sitting at a table and eating together. Satoru's brows furrowed when he examined it. Shiro was in a wheelchair. He hadn't known that his white-haired brother had ever needed one.

He looked back out, where Shisui's stone was. Shiro was probably at that height then, when he was in the chair. Between standing and sitting, Satoru had been at the same height and was able to see the mirror box from there.

The next few was Shiro, holding a little baby Suzu, and another family picture. In this one however, Shiro was sitting in his wheel chair and had an IV drip bag hanging from a pole on the chair. 

The letter though, were his actual words. 

_"To, Whoever's Found This:_

_I hope you followed the clues, because it'd be really stupid if you were just walking along the river and found this box by happenstance. If you have, please try to put it back in the same general direction, if you would._

_But to the one who followed the box, hello. My name is Uchiha Shiro, I'm an albino, and my blood is killing me. Years of inbreeding in the Uchiha have made my blood weak. I have severely low blood pressure, and my blood can't clot at all. There's more, asthma, weakened bones, and a few more, but I'm not keen on boring you with details. All I hope for is that it'll die out if unfortunates like me don't breed and pass it on._

_Maybe God wanted to even out the karma when they made Shizu and Shina, so he made me weak to compensate their strength. I_ _f that's the case, I'm glad. Neither of them should live with this bad blood of mine._

_But, I guess that's not why you've come this far, right? There's still my shinobi box. I planned this to be a lot longer, I really did, but...My body's starting to fail me. I can't keep going, no matter how much I wish I could._

_The master combination is as follows."_

Shiro read the combination, not recognizing the words used but knowing Shikari would. He checked the time on his watch, and sighed deeply. He really couldn't stay out any longer, could he? He had to go back. 

It was only when he got to the riverside did he realize that he'd have to take the long walk to the bridge to get home again.

He texted Shikari to bring the box to school in the morning, and started his way home. Tomorrow, he'd finally know what was in that box.

 


	5. Shrio's Memory

Unsurprisingly, he was grounded at breakfast that morning. Of course Papa knew he'd gone out without permission, and his brand new shoes, now soaked and ruined, would be replaced with Satoru's weekly allowance.

That was only a small price to pay though, since when he got to the school, the box in Shikari's backpack was ready to finally be opened.

He gave her the combination, and he began to click the gears and levers into place. It felt like the air was being squeezed out of his lungs, watching her as she worked, tongue sticking out slightly like she always did when focusing.

Finally, with one 'CLACK', all the little jewelry shelves popped open, and a song began to play from the gears.

The Nara girl was quick to open the largest one, the one on the bottom, but screamed when she saw what was inside. Satoru lurched to a stand, grabbing the box before it could fall. He looked inside, his heart in his throat when he saw what it was. "Eyes..." He said softly, reaching inside the largest box. A mixture of red and pink, each one floating in two separate little jars of preservation fluid.

Shikari, shaking a little, peeked over his shoulder to look. "W-why did he have eyes?! Were they his?!"

Satoru looked up at her, the pieces falling into place. "This was Shiro's sacrifice." He said, holding up one of the jarred eyes.

* * *

 

Satoru went home without even attending the first class, the unlocked shinobi box in his arms, every door closed. He showed his father how to open it, and they went through each drawer together, from the top to the bottom.

Each drawer had pictures and letters, the old copy of Lullabies that Mama had thought she lost was in there too. PIcture of the family, the buildings, even of Shizu and Shina's first training mission at the academy, which the two had captured for Shiro to see since he obviously couldn't join, and the one bookmarked page was the page with poem he'd quoted:

 

_I feel the end drawing near-_   
_Would time be so kind to slow?_   
_You're everything to me, my dear,_   
_You're all I really know._

_But as I sit and wait and fear,  
And watch the hours go-_

_Everything that happened here,  
Happened long ago._

Shiro had died in a fire, Sasuke told Satoru. He was in such pain, they all thought it had just been a suicide. The doctors had told them that he was essentially drowning on dry land due to his sickness, fluid had began to gather in his lungs and he was struggling for air with every breath. He'd gone to the Naka River when nobody was around, and set off half a dozen explosive tags inside the Naka Shrine, burning both him and the shrine into ashes. He'd been carrying that box then, and it had been undamaged by the explosion and subsequent fire

Inside the box were Shiro's apologies, for what he'd done and the pain he'd caused, but saying that he didn't regret it. He'd be dead anyway, and this was one way to live on with Shizu and Shina. He He didn't want them to have this power before they were truly ready however, so set up this puzzle for them, so they'd prove themselves calm and rational enough to have it.

In a letter he'd addressed to his father, he said he'd earned his Sharingan the day he knew he would never become a shinobi, when he was rejected by the academy. He practiced it in secret, thinking maybe he could use it and become a med-nin or tracker, a non-combatant shinobi. It was fully mature by the time Shizu and Shina became Genin at 11 years old. 

When he learned about the fluid in his lungs, he began his plan. His box, his shinobi paper, all of it. He prayed at the Naka Shrine, decrepit though it was, applied explosive tags to his clothing, pulled out his own eye, put the first one in the preservation fluid. In his last letter, which was splattered with blood, he said that it had worked. 

_Papa, it worked. I have it, the Mangekyo, the Tsukiyomi... I...I wish I could say it hurts, but I can't feel it, I can't feel anything. My pain receptors are failing me, everything's gone numb. I guess that might be a blessing. There's no turning back now. This is the last thing I can write you, before I'm blind and before I die._

_I love you, Papa. My death is inevitable, but at least I can make it mean something. I'm so happy, Papa. I'll miss you, I'll tell Uncle and Grandma and Grandpa and everyone about you. I tell Mama I love her too, and Shizu and Shina and Suzu and Suizen...and every other little brother and sister I'll never meet. I love you too._

_Last one...Here I go._  
  
Goodbye.

Satoru looked up at his father, who had tears streaming down his face. He leaned against him slightly, pretending like he hadn't noticed as he picked up the only full-frontal picture he'd seen of Shiro, a polaroid selfie with Shizu and Shina in the background.

* * *

Sasuke spoke to Shizu and Shina separately, apart from the family, about what Shiro had done, showing them the bright red eyes, which were labeled on the bottom with left and right.

The two looked at each other, hearts in their throats. The day Shiro had died...Yes, they did have their Sharingan, and yes it had evolved into the Mangekyo. Fearing their blindness, Sasuke and Sakura had informally operated on them, switching both their eyes, giving them identical Eternal Mangekyo and the power of Amaterasu, though nobody noticed due to their sharing the same eye-color.

If they took Shiro's eyes, everyone would notice due to the unique coloring. One red eye, and one green. They'd have the Tsukiyomi, and eventually the Susanoo. Were they ready for that responsibility, for that strength?

They swore they could, and they'd let Shiro see the world in a way he never could before. 

That afternoon, the same day that Satoru and Shikari opened the box, Shizu and Shina swapped eyes one last time, all four of their combined eyes changing designs, into a five-pointed, rounded flower rather than a pinwheel. Sasuke couldn't help but smile. "Looks like a cherry blossom." He said quietly, poking both his son and daughter's foreheads.

Sasuke had both of them burn their remaining eyes, the ones not currently in their heads, saying that it would be dangerous to keep 'spares' around. They would be leaving for a year, on a training mission in order to get them to master their new abilities. With tears in their eyes, they nodded in agreement. They had some little piece of Shiro left, and they'd show him the world through his eyes.

* * *

 Shikari flipped through the pictures that Satoru was going to use. Somehow, he'd managed to cull a massive room filled with family photo's down to just fifteen, which he would pass around the classroom during his speech about his family. 

_Though there were many people before you, people who were apart of your family and people you may have never met, it's irrefutable that they had loved you to some degree. My family is like most others, we argue, we fight, we cry at sappy TV shows and we laugh at dumb jokes, but there are a lot of 'those' people in my family; People I'll never meet, hundreds of names I'll never be able to know, but I do know that, in some capacity, they loved me even though they never knew who I am._

_We never met, but they loved the possibility of me, and I'll love the memory of them until I go to join them, wherever they are._

_Because that's what family does, family loves._

"A little sappy, but it's sweet." She commended him, smiling slightly.

Satoru gave a cheeky grin. "You think so? Maybe I'll just make Senbei with Mama and give that out. Papa said that the family recipe used to be really famous."

Eh, Family Day was still a little while away. He'd figure it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END
> 
> ^3^


End file.
